nths before she would leave it
again. In one of his memoranda Clemens wrote:

Our dear prisoner is where she is through overwork-day & night
devotion to the children & me. We did not know how to value it. We
know now.

And in a notation, on a letter praising him for what he had done for the
world's enjoyment, and for his splendid triumph over debt, he said:

Livy never gets her share of these applauses, but it is because the
people do not know. Yet she is entitled to the lion's share.

He wrote Twichell at the end of October:

Livy drags along drearily. It must be hard times for that turbulent
spirit. It will be a long time before she is on her feet again. It
is a most pathetic case. I wish I could transfer it to myself.
Between ripping & raging & smoking & reading I could get a good deal
of holiday out of it. Clara runs the house smoothly & capitally.

Heavy as was the cloud of illness, he could not help pestering Twichell
a little about a recent mishap--a sprained shoulder:

I should like to know how & where it happened. In the pulpit, as
like as not, otherwise you would not be taking so much pains to
conceal it. This is not a malicious suggestion, & not a personally
invented one: you told me yourself once that you threw artificial
power & impressiveness in your sermons where needed by "banging the
Bible"--(your own words). You have reached a time of life when it
is not wise to take these risks. You would better jump around. We
all have to change our methods as the infirmities of age creep upon
us. Jumping around will be impressive now, whereas before you were
gray it would have excited remark.

Mrs. Clemens seemed to improve as the weeks passed, and they had great
hopes of her complete recovery. Clemens took up some work--a new
Huck Finn story, inspired by his trip to Hannibal. It was to have two
parts--Huck and Tom in youth, and then their return in old age. He did
some chapters quite in the old vein, and wrote to Howells of his plan.
Howells answered:

It is a great lay-out: what I shall enjoy most will be the return of
the old fellows to the scene and their tall lying. There is a
matchless chance there. I suppose you will put in plenty of pegs in
this prefatory part.

But the new story did not reach completion. Huck and Tom would not come
back, even to go over the old scenes.

CCXXIV. THE SIXTY-SEVENT